Doffer for carding machines



Dec. 8, 1964 F. REITERER 3,

DOFFER FOR CARDING MACHINES Filed Sept. 26. 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet lINVENTOR.

FERDINAND REITERER ATTORNEYS Dec. 8, 1964 F. REITERER 3,159,831

DOFFER FOR CARDING MACHINES Filed Sept. 26. 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 2INVENTOR. FERDINAND REITERER {BMZW QW hlS ATTORNEYS United States Patent3,159,881 BUFFER F02 IARBlNG MACHiNEh Ferdinand Reiterer,Rueil-lii'almaison, France, as-

signor, by direct and mesne assignments, to Whitin Machine Works,Whitlnwille, Mass a corporation of Massachusetts 7 Filed Sept. 26, 1961,gar. No. 149,722 tilaims priority, application France Sept. 28, 1966Claims. (Cl. 19-106) This invention relates to dotlers for cardingmachines, and, more particularly, to a new and improved dofier arrangedto remove impurities and foreign material from a lap of fibers which isbeing processed by the carding machine. This application is acontinuation-in-part of my copending United States application SerialNo. 774,056, filed November 14, 1958, now US. Patent No. 3,089,200, forCarding Apparatus, and Serial No.

56,545, filed December 1, 1959, for Card Clothing.

In conventional carding machines, the working members such as flat cardsor the like which cooperate with the main card cylinder are effective toremove from the fibrous material being processed many of the impuritiessuch as buttons, nits, fleas, or leaves which are carried into themachine by the fiber lap. Frequently, however, some of the impurities orforeign matter escape the clean ing action of these members and passthrough the carding machine along with the lap of fibers, therebyreducing the quality of the product.

Accordingly it is an object of the present invention to provide acarding machine including a new and improved dofier arrangement which iselfective to remove impun'ties from the material being processed.

Another object of the invention is to provide a new and improved dofierfor a carding machine arranged to separate impurities from the fibersbeing processed.

A further object of the invention is to provide a dolfer of the abovecharacter having a new and improved clothing.

These and other objects of the invention are attained by providing adoffer with a toothed clothing wherein ings 3b to permit air to be drawnthrough the clothing and cylinder wall by an internal suction device 4.A pressure duct (not shown) may also be provided within the dotfercylinder to assist in removing a lap of fibrous material from theclothing 3.

As in conventional carding machines, a lap 8 of fibers which has'beenprocessed on the main cylinder 1 is transferred to the tips of the teeth3a of the doffer as a result of the slower peripheral speed of thedofier than the main cylinder. In accordance with the present invention,however, the teeth 3a extend substantially higher than in conventionalcarding machines so that as best seen in FIG. 2, when the lap 8 offibers, which is, for example, about two to three millimeters thick themaximum thickness being referred to herein as the selected value, isdrawn against the base of the clothing, its outer surface lies at orbelow the tips of the teeth. To this end, the height of the dolfer teethabove the base of the clothing should be greater than the selectedvalue, i.e., greater than about three millimeters and preferably withinthe range of three to four and one-half millimeters, whereas inconventional cardingmachines the dofier teeth are only about two andone-half millimeters high, which is the teeth have a height above thebase which is equal to or greater than the maximum thickness of the lapof fibers being processed. in addition, the dofi'er is provided with aninternal suction device or other means for forcing the lap of fibers tothe base of the clothing while the bulkier and more dense impurities areretained at the tips of the teeth. In order to assist in removing theimpurities from the tips of the teeth, a rotating brush having bristlesclosely adjacent to the teeth and turning in the direction opposite tothat of the dofier at a'periph- 'eral rate of speed slightly greaterthan that of the doffer may be provided, the rotary brush being locatedbeyond the position of the suction device with respect to the directionof rotation of the doffer.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from areading of the following description in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary View, partly in section, of a carding machinehaving a typical doder arranged according to the invention; and

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of the dolfer shown in FIG. 1, illustratingits structure and operation in greater detail.

In the representative embodiment of the invention shown in the drawingsa main cylinder or swift 1 having a toothed clothing 1a rotates in thedirection indicated by the arrow adjacent to a dolier cylinder 2 whichrotates on the opposite direction and at a lower peripheral rate ofspeed than that of the main cylinder 1. The dofier cylinder 2 has aperforated outer Wall 2a upon which is mounted a clothing 3 formed withteeth 3a and with openless than the maximum thickness of most fiberlaps. in a particular example, the teeth have a height of from 3.4 to4.4 millimeters. Preferably, the doffer clothing consists of a strip ofclothing material having a base portion with a width of about fivemillimeters and wound helically around the cylinder 2. The turns of thestrip are thus placed in an oblique relation with respect to the axis ofthe cylinder which makes cleaning of the clothing more efficient. Thethickness of the base of the clothing is about one and one-halfmillimeters, as in conventional carding machines.

When the lap 8 of fibers is drawn to the bottom of the clothing by thesuction produced at the duct 4, the bulkier,

coarser, and more dense impurities and foreign matter 9 tend to beretained at the tips of the teeth 3a, as indicated in the drawings, andwith the extended teeth of the present invention substantially completeseparation of the impurities 9 from the lap 8 is assured. On the otherhand, with the conventional short dor'fer teeth, even if the lap oftenis drawn against the base of the clothing, the outer surface of the laplies above the tips of the teeth so that the impurities cannot becompletely separated from the lap.

Some of the impurities separated from the lap by the novel dofierarrangement of the present invention will fall by gravity from the tipsof the clothing teeth or be thrown off by centrifugal force resultingfrom the rotation of the dofier. Those impurities which adhere morestrongly to the teeth or the outer surface of the lap are removed by arotating brush 5 which turns in the direction opposite to that of thedofier, as indicated by the arrow, and at a slightly higher peripheralspeed. This brush which is made with straight bristles 6, preferably offlexible steel wire or the like, is mounted adjacent to the dofier sothat the points of these bristles pass very close to the tips of theteeth 3a without touching them. A scraper knife 7 is provided to scrapethe bristles 6 as the brush rotates so as to remove any impurities whichmay adhere to them.

In order to permit variation of the spacing between the brush bristles 6and the tips of the dofler clothing teeth 3a, the axle 10 of the brushis adjustably mounted in a longitudinal slot 11 of a pivoted support arm12 which can be held at any desired angular position by a movable stop13. With this arrangement the location of the brush 5 along the dofierperiphery with respect to the suction duct 4 can be varied. Preferably,the brush 5 is located slightly beyond the position of the suction duct4 in the direction of rotation of the dotfer.

In operation, with the cylinder 1, the dofier 2, and the brush rotatingin the directions indicated by the arrows and suction applied to theduct 4, a lap 8 of fibers is transferred in the usual manner from themain cylinder.

1 to the tips of teeth 3a of the doffer. As best seen in FIG. 2, the lap8 is drawn inwardly to the base of the clothing 3 as it passes over thesuction duct 4, thus separating the useful fibers from the bulkierimpurities 9, which are retained at the tips of the teeth 3a. In theexample illustrated in the drawings, the outer surface of the lap issubstantially below the points of the teeth so that the separation ofthe impurities is complete. As the clothing 3 moves next to the rotatingbrush 5, the bristles 6 of the brush remove the impurities 9 from thetips of the teeth without disturbing the lap of fibers.

Even if the lap 8 is thick enough to extend up to the tips of the teeth3a, however, the impurities are still held sufiiciently above the bodyof the lap so that they can be removed by the brush 5. In this event,because of the greater peripheral speed of the brush than the dofier,any fibers of the lap which come into contact with the bristles 6 willbe subjected to an additional disentangling operation by the bristlesWithout being removed from the dotfer clothing. Afterm passing the brush5, the lap 3 of fibers is removed from the doffer in the usual mannerwith the assistance, if desired, of a stream of air directed outwardlyfrom the inside of the dofier through a pressure duct (not shown).

Although the invention has been described herein with reference to aspecific embodiment may modifications and variations therein willreadily occur to those skilled in the art. Accordingly all suchvariations and modifications are included within the intended scope ofthe invention as defined by the following claims.

I claim:

1. In combination, a component for a fiber processing machine adapted tocarry a lap of fibers having a maximum thickness which is generally nogreater than a selected value comprising a rotatable hollow cylinderhaving a perforatedouter Wall, a toothed clothing mounted on the outersurface of the outer wall comprising a base provided with a plurality ofopenings to admit air into the cylinder and a plurality of teethprojecting outwardly therefrom and having a height above the base whichis at least as great as the selected value, a suction duct mountedinside the cylinder for directing air inwardly through the clothing andthe cylinder Wall into the cylinder so that a lap of fibers carried bythe clothing is drawn against the base of the clothing with the outersurface thereof no farther from the base than the points of the teeth,whereby coarse impurities tend to beretained at the points of the teethand thereby separated from the fibers of the lap, and a rotatable brushmounted closely adjacent to the points of the teeth to remove impuritiestherfrom, the rotatable brush being located beyond the position of thesuction duct in the direction of motion of the clothing.

2. In a carding machine including a main cylinder adapted to process alap of fibers and a dofifer adapted to remove the lap of fibers from themain cylinder wherein the lap of fibers on the doifer has a thicknesswhich is generally no greater than a selected value, the dotlercomprising a rotatable hollow cylinder having a perforated outer wall, atoothed clothing mounted on the outer surface of the wall comprising abase provided with a plurality of openings to admit air into thecylinder and a plurality of teeth projecting outwardly therefrom andhaving a height above the base which is at least as greatas the selectedvalue, a suction duct located within the dofier cylinder at an angularposition slightly beyond the point of transfer of the lap from the maincylinder to the dofier cylinder in the direction of rotation of thedotfer cylinder adapted to draw air through the clothing and thecylinder wall so as to draw the lap of fibers against the base of theclothing with the outer surface of the lap located no farther away fromthe base than the points of the teeth, whereby impurities in the fiberlap are selectively retained at the points of the teeth.

3. A carding machine according to claim 2 including a rotatable brushmounted closely adjacent to the points of the teeth at an angularposition slightly beyond that of the suction duct in the direction ofrotation of the doifer to remove impurities from the points of theteeth.

4. A car ing machine according to claim 3 including means for adjustingthe angular position of the brush and means for adjusting the spacingbetween the brush and the points of the teeth.

5. A carding machine according to claim 3 including means for rotatingthe brush in the opposite direction as the doffer cylinder at aperipheral rate of speed slightly higher than'that of the dofiercylinder.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,422,581 Laurency et al. July 11, 1922 2,398,732 Weber Apr. 16, 19462,871,770 Jackson Feb. 3, 1959 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,190,064 France Mar. 31,1959 1,217,220 France Dec. 7, 1959 462,201 Great Britain Mar. 4, 1937

1. IN COMBINATION, A COMPONENT FOR A FIBER PROCESSING MACHINE ADAPTED TOCARRY A LAP OF FIBERS HAVING A MAXIMUM THICKNESS WHICH IS GENERALLY NOGREATER THAN A SELECTED VALUE COMPRISING A ROTATABLE HOLLOW CYLINDERHAVING A PERFORATED OUTER WALL, A TOOTHED CLOTHING MOUNTED ON THE OUTERSURFACE OF THE OUTER WALL COMPRISING A BASE PROVIDED WITH A PLURALITY OFOPENINGS TO ADMIT AIR INTO THE CYLINDER AND A PLURALITY OF TEETHPROJECTING OUTWARDLY THEREFROM AND HAVING A HEIGHT ABOVE THE BASE WHICHIS AT LEAST AS GREAT AS THE SELECTED VALUE, A SUCTION DUCT MOUNTEDINSIDE THE CYLINDER FOR DIRECTING AIR INWARDLY THROUGH THE CLOTHING ANDTHE CYLINDER WALL INTO THE CYLINDER SO THAT A LAP OF FIBERS CARRIED BYTHE CLOTHING IS DRAWN AGAINST THE BASE OF THE CLOTHING WITH THE OUTERSURFACE THEREOF NO FARTHER FROM THE BASE THAN THE POINTS OF THE TEETH,WHEREBY COARSE IMPURITIES TEND TO BE RETAINED AT THE POINTS OF THE TEETHAND THEREBY SEPARATED FROM THE FIBERS OF THE LAP, AND A ROTATABLE BRUSHMOUNTED CLOSELY ADJACENT TO THE POINTS OF THE TEETH TO REMOVE IMPURITIESTHEREFROM, THE ROTATABLE BRUSH BEING LOCATED BEYOND THE